New oil condition monitoring technology protects critical plant equipment while reducing downtime and costs

Parker Hannifin has launched cutting edge oil condition monitoring technology that will enable marine operators to reduce downtime and costs while protecting and maintaining vital assets. This oil condition monitoring instrumentation was designed with the help of specialists in the marine sector. The end result was the DIGI Plus which provides fast on-site and on-board oil condition monitoring to enhance productivity and raise uptime.

In 1993 Parker Hannifin launched their DIGI cell technology, which became one of the world’s most reliable oil conditioning monitors for the marine industry. The new DIGI Plus combined test cell is their latest addition to this highly successful range, it offers rapid and user-friendly monitoring of oil in water and oil base numbers. DIGI Plus also enables operators to detect non-specified oils and lubricants and to discover possible issues before they become serious problems.

These new devices have an intrinsic built-in test memory for logging up to 50 individual results as part of a pre-programmed test schedule, it can also perform miscellaneous or spot tests. Test data is downloaded via USB cable and the results can subsequently be used for trend analysis programmes. The USB cable also charges the DIGI Plus cell’s battery. 

Designed to operate in harsh environments, DIGI Plus includes an enhanced backlit colour display offering improved visibility, which is ideal for the poor light conditions ubiquitous when taking these types of measurement. This display was developed to ease the identification of alarm conditions and pass/fail results, It also guides the end-user through each step of operation such as cell cleaning. The DIGI Plus’ cell is made of lightweight glass reinforced plastic and includes non-slip twist grips designed to alleviate handling fatigue during operation.

This new instrument performs both water in oil (H2O) and base number (BN) tests and has been incorporated into Parker’s DIGI Plus Field Test Kit, which also measures acid number; insoluble loading and basic viscosity.